The Way I See It: Barnes & Noble Violates Privacy Policy

In the last couple of weeks, Barnes & Noble (B&N) has been aggressively sending out emails to former customers of Borders.  These emails apparently are aimed at customers who previously had Borders membership cards to encourage them to shop at B&N.  I really would not have a problem with this except that I have NEVER given my email address to B&N.  So, Borders violated their own former Privacy Policy of “not selling, renting, or giving away” customer information.

This leads me into thinking that Borders could never have been trusted with customer personal information.  What other information about me does B&N have?  Credit card numbers…previous purchase information…home address'/phone number?  Where does it end?

What bothers me even worse is that B&N has purchased the “Borders” name and website as well.  Did they decide to get all customer data with the name purchase?  These questions bother me to the point that if B&N REALLY wanted my business, they would be located within 50 miles of where I live.  Ironically, since they are not within a reasonable distance, it is hard to imagine that they wanted customers outside of 25 miles of their nearest store.  How many people will travel over 50 miles regularly just to make a purchase with them.  My last purchase with them was over 3 years ago and I never have belonged to their rip-off membership program.

It seems that since B&N has no real national competition anymore they can do whatever they want even if it means using customers’ information that they should have never acquired.  I say “JUST SAY NO TO B&N”.  They never had my business and they won’t earn it this way.

In a future post, I will discuss these membership/rewards cards at a longer extent and it may shock some at what they REALLY collect and how they use it…